This English-language database www.palestinecinema.com currently contains data on more than 1000 short and long documentaries and fiction films that provide a good picture of Palestinian reality and thus serve as a counterbalance to the – on average – inadequate reporting in the media. By this means we want to promote that these films are screened and seen more often, so that worldwide there is more understanding and sympathy for the Palestinian cause.
Under the heading ‘Palestinian Cinema’ we do not only include films by directors with a Palestinian nationality / background, although they do form the bulk of the database. However, some of the films are made by other directors, including Jewish-Israeli. Our main criterion for including a film in the database is: does the film clarify the fate of the Palestinians and their conflict with Israel ?
For each film title, the database states: name of director, length and subject of the film, and year of release. If this is available, by clicking on the title a detailed film description becomes visible, plus a link to a trailer and (sometimes) a full version.
A handy search method is by entering a few keywords in ‘Search’. For example, if you enter ‘women’ and ‘Gaza’ in Search, a large list of titles about this will appear, which will enable you to determine what is to your liking.
New ‘Palestinian’ films appear almost every week. This implies that the database is by definition out of date. If you would like to know something about very recent titles, we can email a list on request (please send your email to: palcin@xs4all.nl).
The website also contains a ‘News’ section, including information about upcoming festivals viewing ‘Palestinian’ films.
For questions you can contact us via palcin@xs4all.nl.
Margot Heijnsbroek & Frans Brons
Cinema Palestine Working Group
The Hague – The Netherlands
